Smoking food is a means of cooking food in which the food is kept at a temperature environment of between 200° F. and 230° F. and a means is typically provided to add moisture into the smoker structure to maintain the food in a moist condition. A number of prior art attempts have been made at producing smokers, but none have entirely met the challenges of the present invention. One prior art smoker is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,127 issued to Edward T. Muse on Dec. 4, 1973. Another example of a prior art structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,295 issued Jun. 13, 1978 to Boswell et al. The structure illustrated in Boswell is a vertical smoker which includes a cylinder divided into three discrete sections, a lower section containing a heat source, a middle section which includes a tray or pan of water to absorb heat and add moisture to the cooking environment and an upper section which includes food supporting grills. While smoking food in a device of this type, although satisfactory, requires the purchase of an additional item and the device of the '295 patent is rather bulky.
Another type of smoker which is known in prior art is generally referred to as a horizontally configured smoker. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,533 issued Apr. 3, 2001 to Ganard. This configuration utilizes a separate fire box containing combustible charcoal for heating wood chips to add aromatic smoke for flavoring the material. As in the vertical smoker, a separate device is required which is bulky and expensive.
A number of structures have been proposed which are added to an existing grill, for example that category for U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,977 issued Jun. 23, 1998 to Parris et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,319 issued Sep. 27, 1988 to Holland; a design Pat. 289,964 issued May 26, 1987 to Osborne Ellwood; U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,165 issued Feb. 17, 1998 to Winstead; U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,049 issued Feb. 20, 1979 to Stewart; U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,677 issued Feb. 26, 1980 to Robins; U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,727 issued Mar. 17, 1992 to Crace; U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,777 issued Dec. 10, 1991 to Novak; U.S. Pat. No. 6,688,301 issued Feb. 10, 2004 to McNeill; U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,498 issued Apr. 6, 1999 to Boehler; U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,463 issued Feb. 25, 2003 to Hogle; U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,464 issued May 23, 2002 to Cajec; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,927 issued Oct. 18, 1998 to Stephen et al.
Some of the foregoing prior art devices have included an arrangement for dividing heat sources and in some instances also to provide moisture into the cooking environment. However, none of the foregoing devices are entirely satisfactory for use as smokers. What is needed is a simple and inexpensive structure for converting an existing cooking structure into a satisfactory smoker. None of the foregoing devices have achieved this goal.